Launching Into 2018 with Christmas Presents of 2017

Guess who? I'm back after my one week break!

Welcome everyone, one and all to 2018! Surprisingly this week’s blog actually falls on New Year’s Day, which is quite the coincidence.

2017 was by far one crazy year, a lot happened in both good and bad aspects. Looking past the negative and the tragic moments there was a lot of positive good that came out of 2017. For instance I actually bucked up the courage to let my artistic urges flow out and onto the canvas, well Watercolor paper that is. Yeah a big part of last year was my journey into art, which actually began when I started knitting in the September of 2016 now that I think about it, considering knitting is an art. I could recap every step I took but that would be monotonous to say the least, let's just say I improved a lot in just one year.

With this journey of art continuing it seems Santa Claus caught onto my antics and got me something pretty awesome. Remember when I reviewed my Mum’s Winsor and Newton Cotman watercolor paint set last year? Yeah those paints were pretty awesome and to my surprise a huge improvement over my Sakura Koi set which are supposed to be in the same “Grade”.

Well thanks to Santa and Mrs. Claus (Hi Mum) I got this incredible Watercolor paint set.

It might seem like a little plain white box but this little white box holds 16 half pan watercolors from Winsor and Newton Cotman, a brand a paints I really wanted to switch to ever since trying out my Mum’s set.

The colors I got in this set are Chinese White, Payne’s Grey, Colbalt Blue, Ultramarine, Turquoise, Viridian Hue, Sap Green, Cadmium Yellow Hue Pale, Cadium Yellow Hue, Cadmium Red Hue Pale, Cadmium Red Deep Hue, Alicarin Crimson, Purple Lake, Burnt Umber, Yellow Ochre and Burnt Sienna.

So as you can see I have a pretty great variety of colors, actually this set has all the colors I need for the types of paintings I do. For colors I don’t have I love mixing colors so I’ll just easily make my own, which in fact these colors actually mix quite easily to my surprise.

Got some new colors that I haven’t had before such as Turquoise, a cool blue with a hint of green, which will actually make for a cool lake or river color I believe. Purple Lake is a new color to me, usually I just use violet but this Purple Lake seems to have more reds then blues in its mix. Not sure what the origin of the name “Purple Lake” entails but it’s a cool color regardless. I’m finally happy to have a Burnt Sienna available to me in a half pan. Burnt Sienna was a color missing from my Sakura Koi set so I’m glad to have this color finally.

As you can see I’ve already made up a couple of skin tones which I’ve charted on my color chart, but you can guess who I’ll be painting soon with these watercolors. (Hint: She has honey blonde hair and brown/red eyes… Yeah.)

Actually I have two resources on hand now that will make my human figure drawing, both male and female skyrocket in accuracy. First up Santa got me this wooden artist manikin, which while looking goofy this thing actually will help with basic anatomy, it’s not super accurate and it’s not one of those Body-Kuns you see online but it’s already helped me quite a bit.

The second resource I now have at hand is an amazing app for the iPad, iPhone and I believe Android devices. This app is known by the name of “Magic Poser”. What is Magic Poster? Well Magic Poser allows you to pose realistic (and Manga) manikin models to any pose you can imagine, allowing for an unlimited source of references for your human figure drawings and to my surprise this app is pretty extensive. The manikins have a poser point for every part of the body you would need to pose, with rotation options included. What’s even better about this app is the ability to add MULTIPLE MODELS! Want to draw multiple people in one drawing? Then this app will allow you to pose your people, which will surely ease your soul when actually drawing. 

Does it stop there? Nope! You can change the perspective of your model, change the lightening (Which is a god send for someone like me who has had problems with shading) and for the cherry on top, you can upload your designs as well as download designs made by others.

I do find the controls a bit finicky on my iPad but perhaps it’s because of my big fingers or my lack of having a stylus but other than that it’s a pretty amazing app and it’s already been a massive help. Like I mentioned previously there are options for realistic Male and Female and Manga Male and Female. I actually prefer to stick with realistic but the Manga is a pretty great option for those whose art style is more in line with the awesome art styles from Japan.

Now this app is not free, it does have a 7 day free trial and I believe you keep some of the basic functions when it expires but the full app is going to cost you $4.99 which is not bad all things considered and I’m definitely going to purchase this myself when my trial runs out. You can download the app by clicking the link below!

The next gift I got is more related to the literary side of my art, my novel writing/writing in general. I never knew I wanted a leather covered writer’s journal until I got this incredible beast.

This book is gorgeous and with 192 pages I should get quite a lot written in this book, although I’m still using my Pokemon Journal book I got for my Birthday for right now. I may actually write the actual manuscript for Dream Eclipse Book 1 in this new journal I’m not sure yet.

Gaze at my incredible segway skills as I switch focus to the part of Christmas I love the most, the Pokemon part.

I’ve been crazing these two items for so long and you readers will know if you’ve kept up with the blog in the second half of last year, Pokemon Ultra Sun and Pokemon Ultra Moon!

Yes I finally got a hold of these bad boys and even better is the fact that these come with key chains! Yeah I assumed these key chains were pre-order bonuses only but surprisingly these were being sold at Walmart. Probably should have mentioned this to you guys but I wasn’t supposed to know either for Christmas reasons. You can go check and perhaps they might still be selling them but no guarantees.

I’ve already begun my journey on Ultra Sun with Litten by my side and I can say this game is definitely not a carbon copy of Sun and Moon, yes the events taking place are similar, it’s not a sequel by any means and instead an alternative universe but it’s not a copy and paste situation. I’ve already come across a lot of parts in the first two islands that have shocked me. I think I’ve fallen in love with Mantine Surfing, which is a minigame you unlock after beating the first Kahuna, allowing you to surf to the other islands instead of taking Professor Kukui’s shabby looking boat. I’ll be discussing this game further in depth as we go forward into 2018, hopefully covering the game better than I did Sun and Moon.

I finally got myself a new Pokemon Card folder/binder. Admittedly my old folder that I’ve been using for many years now has gotten a little on the stuffed side, I mean it was holding over 6 generations of cards I really should of gotten a new card folder by now.

This new folder has got my all time favorite Pokemon on it, Pikachu and is surprisingly made by the same people as the card sleeves I recently purchased, making everything a perfect fit. I don’t know how long it’ll be before I get another folder as I’m buying cards quite often recently. (I may start doing card unpacking blogs again but I’m wondering whether I should be doing videos instead, as videos would be more interesting.) I’ve put all my Sun and Moon/Generation 7 cards into this folder as a clean slate start of sorts.

Speaking of Pokemon Cards the brand new Sun and Moon Ultra Prism Expansion Pack comes out Febuary 2^nd so keep an eye out! These new cards are supposed to be some of the best.

I got four new Pokemon Manga books to continue the two series I’ve been reading so far which are Pokemon XY and Pokemon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

Sadly these two XY books are actually the last in the series and have wrapped up the awesome storyline that’s been running throughout the XY books. I’m actually going to review the series as a whole later but I can safely say I dived right into these last two books. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire is a series I picked up last year, it’s a sequel to the original Ruby and Sapphire series which I’ve never read but it actually coincides slightly with XY. It’s a great read regardless and I’m not feeling lost not having read the Ruby and Sapphire books so it’s all good. I haven’t read these two yet but I’ll be sure to let you know my thoughts on them later. Until Sun and Moon starts releasing on May 8^th over here in America I’ll be just left with Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire but I’m excited on what stories come from Mr. Kusaka.

My filmmaking just got a brand new ally in the form of this compact and overall awesome Tripod I got.

Yeah you’re reading that right; this is an Amazon Basics Tripod. Didn’t know Amazon had a brand of products? I sure didn’t know. This Tripod is actually really great, it’s not super tall but I didn’t exactly want nor need a super tall Tripod. This thing is compact enough to carry on trips unlike my other large tripod (Which isn’t much taller than this one anyway) but still has all the features I prefer, such as adjustable panning, the level meter, a pan handle and telescoping legs.

Another plus of this Tripod is I can actually do dual and even triple perspective videos now! With this in mind my sister and I can start doing more duo videos like our art videos we’ve done previously with an actual decent set up. So yeah, thanks Santa… Aka Mum and Dad.

Finally the last present I want to showcase is possibly one of the greatest presents I’ve ever gotten.

A Velvet Box!

Yup, it’s a velvet box. Great huh? Absolutely, it’s soft and plush and quite sturdy, but what is it holding exactly?

Did you gasp? I sure did. This velvet box opens up to reveal two incredible devices that a writer such as me knows much about. This box contains a Cross Ballpoint Pen and a Cross Mechanical Pencil. I’ve wanted one of these pens for so long and getting it in this box, with an inspiration quote to boot is a pretty awesome surprise. I’ve already tried this out in writing my novel of course so I can say this pen feels incredible in my hands. I haven’t tried out the mechanical pencil just yet but it probably feels just the same.

So other than some other things here and there that’s pretty much the gist of my Christmas haul, I know that makes me sound like I care only about getting but I actually gave quite a lot this year so I’m just bragging.

With that all said that ends the first blog of 2018 but I’m not done talking about the future just yet! Next week I plan on discussing some movies I’m excited for in 2018 as well as some more looking forward to what 2018 holds. So no more looking back, it’s time to look forward to a brand new year with new changes to come to the blog, hopefully some improvements.

Happy New Years Everyone!

See you next week!

Oh yeah… This was ZAK Entertainment.